After the strongest and coldest blizzard yet, the evergreen vine bumped up against something. Branches of the vine continued on either side of the something, but one pressed firmly against it. The something sent sensations down the vine similar to those sent by the edge of worldlet spaces. The vine roots did not manage to find purchase in the something, but bit into the ground underneath the something. The roots spread slowly through the ground as the vine grew up and over the obstacle. A few minor blizzards later, the something was fully surrounded by the evergreen vine branches. Needles and roots pressed into the obstacle constantly, but never broke through.
A violent and sudden blizzard froze a section of the vine across the side of the obstacle. The vine began to curl up and shiver through the blizzard, but the damage from the frozen section drew a pulse of mana from the dungeon core at the same time. The curling motion of the vine branches increased in speed and strength while the mana swirled through them.
*SNAP*
The blizzard wind stopped instantly as the obstacle broke from the ground with the pressure from the vine branches. The vine branches sagged a bit as the something vanished.
“What is this?”
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Lightning shot up the dungeon vine, straight into the dungeon mind space. A sparking and buzzing presence filled the dungeon mind space with yellow light and startled the information bundles, except for the jellyfish bundle, which just drifted.
“A dungeon mind without a prebuilt cognition engine? Curious. Does it even function?” The presence compressed down to a tiny spark and floated around the dungeon mind space, examining everything. It teased the snake bundle and flew circles around the jellyfish bundle. It spent a long time just floating through the sensory information that fell in the mind space like rain.
“Well, as interesting as this is, I’m not sure it’s worthwhile to continue the experiment. I’m not even sure how a mindless dungeon could have accessed my space. Hmmm. Perhaps the mind was destroyed? All we have left here is some loose pieces and the instincts for the plant avatar. Pity this place doesn’t even have the ability to form memories.” The spark drifted down to the ground and sent tiny bits of energy into the dungeon core instincts. The spark was immediately distracted by portions of the energy that flowed along the mushroom network fibers.
“Oh? I didn’t realize the fibers could carry anything. Hmmm!” The spark sounded pleased, though nothing around could understand it. The spark laboriously traced out all the mushroom network fibers. It observed points where the fibers had broken and where they had regrown. It sent bits of energy into the fibers at various points to observe the results.
“Fascinating. Inefficient. Very inefficient. It isn’t quite like memory, though it is affected by the sensory stimulus and the actions of the…” The spark trailed off for a moment. “Of the dungeon creature mental avatars, I guess. I think I knew they operated as stimulus-response machines but I can’t clearly recall.” The spark whizzed over the heads of the information bundles a few times. “It’s like a subconscious. That is the real value of this experiment. Prebuilt cognition engines don’t have a subconscious. I’m not sure they could even be augmented with a subconscious without fundamental changes. Charlie would know-“ The spark stopped and suddenly flashed black for a split second and buzzed furiously. It returned to its quiet yellow state and continued with less excitement than before. “Anyway… Don’t fret, little dungeon, I won’t wipe you clean and have you start over. Let’s take a closer look at you.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The spark returned to the dungeon instincts and sent bits of energy into them, reading the responses back out as more energy. The presence immersed itself more directly in the dungeon senses and abilities.
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The presence looked out from the dungeon core itself. It saw a hollow space inside some sort of plant. The space was not very large, perhaps large enough for two fully grown elves to crouch in without touching the core. A fairy with violently violet hair sat in a lawn chair and played a flute while watching a visual scanner. Dungeon fairy assigned, but the dungeon wasn’t reported as defective. Did the fairy do this? The presence watched the fairy play the flute and compose terrible lyrics for ten minutes or so. No, I think he might just be a terrible dungeon fairy. ‘Inexperience’ would be the kind way to phrase it. The presence watched the dungeon people on the scanner for a while.
Two of the humans, ‘Dan’ and ‘Jan’, were dancing around each other in an adorable awkward romance. Apparently, they had both been born and named during a brief short-name fad and their odd names had brought them together as childhood friends. Jan’s family had moved away for a number of years and had recently returned to “the hill”, whatever that was. The dungeon fairy and the presence both laughed as Jan barged into someone else’s hut, thinking that Dan and the other person were in a compromising position, but found instead that Dan was helping move and repair a sleeping platform. The other dungeon people were also enjoying the antics of the two young people, though Hana, the leader, seemed only annoyed.
The presence was caught off guard when the fairy turned to the dungeon core and asked, “What do you think, another week or so? They have dragged this out much longer than I expected.” The fairy waited for some sort of reply before continuing with a shrug. “I suppose it’s the first romance you’ve seen, so it make sense to not have an opinion. We can go back to watching the bats now, I know it’s your favorite.” The visual scanner shifted to an underwater view where a flock of blue bats harassed a snake that spat acid from inside an air bubble.
The presence extended its senses along the vine that served as the dungeon avatar and felt out the worldlets that the dungeon had created. Nine worldlets in total, no recognizable order to them, though they seemed to follow a theme involving variations of soil, water, and light. The presence examined each worldlet carefully, noting the variety of creatures, the two boss creatures and the aberrant stone bat, and the different evolutions of the dungeon avatar vine. It eventually found the gall and the void bubble trapped inside.
“Amazing. Mindless, helpless, driven by pure chance, and still able to thwart my sister’s design.” The presence cackled in dark glee for a while. “I think you deserve a reward, dungeon vine! It would be irresponsible to leave you like this forever, but I can point you down a path with great potential. Also, I can’t leave an agent of my sister to potentially infect you.” The presence instantly pulled the void bubble into the dungeon mind space, wrapped it in bright yellow power, and crushed it to a single point.
_ Spark of Sapience Unlocked _
In the center of the dungeon mind space, a new star shone with mirrored light. Each ray of light from the star held a reflection of the entire mind space. The spark spoke once more. “Good luck, dungeon. I’m leaving now, and there won’t be any trace of me left behind. If you ever form a consciousness, you’ll be a true mind and very powerful, so I promise to check in on you, someday.” The spark slid back down the dungeon vine to the captured space and vanished.